Recipe
A Dish That Will Make The Austrian Kitchen Your Favorite One: The Grenadiermarsch
The word "Grenadiermarsch" comes from the military-slang and contains "marsch" which means march. It is said that this dish was prepared during war-times, when food was poor but soldiers needed energy. Back then people started throwing their leftovers together and created an amazing dish containing things you'll probably have at home most of the time.
The Grenadiermarsch is made throughout Austria and varies from region to region; it can contain sausages or meat leftovers, noodles or Austrian dumplings called "Knödel". In Eastern Austria near the Hungarian boarder, people love ground paprika because of it's spicy taste. As I am from east Austria and raised with dishes containing this red aromatic powder, I made it like the Austrian-Hungarians did it during the monarchy. Okay, history lesson done.
The recipe calls for "pulled ham hock", which is basically a salty pulled pork. You can usually find this in a package at a grocery store, but if not you could use plain pulled pork, pulled beef, speck or sausages — personally I prefer the ham hock. The key ingredient for a great Grenadiermarsch is butter...lots of butter As the very first star cook, Fernand Point, would say: "Give me enough time and even more butter". For the pasta, it has to be small and preferably in exactly this shape which we call "Hörnchen" — it is a nice way to say small horns. Elbows or small macaroni would work!
Here's the recipe that will change your life and perspective on Austrian food.
Grenadiermarsch
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter
- 2 Medium Potatoes or the equivalent if small
- 2 Cups Medium-Sized Pasta preferably "Chifferi Rigati" or elbows
- 1 cup Pulled Ham Hock
- 1/2 White Onion chopped
- Grounded Red Paprika
- Salt and Pepper
- Ghee